Um, yeah, school. Apologies. On with it then. Epilogue after this and a couple of long future one-shots.
"Hey," he knocked on the kitchen door frame and winced at seeing Taylor sitting on a barstool next to Haley. Really? Of all her sisters to be home? "Can I talk to you?" Nathan pushed, ignoring the blonde entirely.
"Tay?" Haley edged. They hadn't been fighting, one of the rare instances, but she knew her sister would offer her opinion regardless of whether or not it was asked for.
She smirked and opened her mouth, ready with a sharp comment if hadn't been for Haley's sharper glare. "Fine, I'll be in my room for when you break up with the NBA wannabe. Have fun in Oklahoma, Nate. Good riddance." They both rolled their eyes on cue and heaved a small sigh of relief when she stomped up the stairs.
"Hi," Haley immediately went to him, wrapping her arms around his waist. "I thought you were leaving tonight?"
"Yeah, well, Luke wants to come and he's not done with practice yet. Dad pushed the flight to tomorrow," he sighed, pressing a kiss to her hair. "And I asked him to stall for me."
"Stall? What the hell for, Nathan?" She pulled back worriedly and lightly punched him in the shoulder.
Nathan sighed again. Dan had been complaining that all he'd done was mope around when he should have been celebrating. "I talked to my agent last night after the party. I asked him to talk to Golden State again."
At that, she slugged him in the stomach. "Are you kidding me? You've got to drop whatever misguided sense of...I don't even know what that you've got going on. This is ridiculous. So what if I don't go to Stanford? I wasn't going to Stanford to begin with. It's not like I'm missing out on anything."
"You could be! You don't know that," Nathan argued back, still rubbing over where she'd hit him. "You deserve better. I have a chance to help you with that."
"You deserve this," Haley corrected with a harsh glare. "And I have the opportunity to support you in getting it. Why can't you just get it through your thick-ass skull? This isn't about what we miss out on by being together. It's about what we gain, you stupid ass."
Nathan just shook his head as she continued to curse him out under her breath. He was taken aback when she jammed her hand into his back pocket, only to pull out his cell phone. Without another word, she took off running up the stairs. He gave chase but with the headstart she'd gained and the fact that she had one of the first rooms, Haley managed to slam and lock her door in his face.
"Haley! Damn it! What are you even doing?" He slammed his fist on the door, wincing when a small crack could be heard from the wooden panel. A throat cleared across the hall and Nathan rolled his eyes instinctively.
"Is there a reason you're trying to huff and puff and blow the house down?" Taylor leaned against her own doorway, barely hiding the smirk. "What'd little sis do this time?"
"Stole my damn phone," Nathan gritted out, hushing Taylor when he thought he could hear Haley through the door. "Don't ask."
"Is this about Stanford?" she stated rather than questioned. When he glared at her, Taylor merely rolled her eyes. "I'm a bitch. I'm not stupid. What'd you do?"
She sighed when he didn't volunteer an answer. "Okay, Nathan. Listen. Haley doesn't want Stanford. She wants you...for some weird reason. You've got to stop trying to run her life because obviously all it's doing is pissing her off. And even though it amuses me, it's probably not good for your relationship."
"Haley's never been about brand names, okay? Not in high school and not now. I know you think Stanford is a really big deal to her and once upon a time it was. But she's got different priorities now. Whatever edge people get from going to schools like Stanford? Haley's already got it. In case you haven't noticed, baby sis is pretty awesome all by herself. Stop doubting her."
The door swung open and Haley stepped out, slamming the phone into his chest. "I talked to your agent. He now knows better than to listen to your delusional, possibly drunken, ramblings. Oklahoma City it is. Luke is coming home early from practice so go get your ass on that plane."
"Love you too," he grumbled, rolling his eyes. He opened his mouth to speak again but Haley pressed a light hand over his heart and shot a harsh look over his shoulder.
"What do you want, Taylor?" she questioned suspiciously.
"I love watching relationships implode," Taylor responded with a quick grin. "It's when they explode that I get the hell out. Bye, guys."
Haley rolled her eyes before giving him an apologetic smile, lightly massaging where she'd pushed his phone. "Sorry, I didn't mean to do that. You just make me so mad sometimes."
"Same here," Nathan scoffed, rubbing a hand over his tired face. "I already told you. I don't like seeing you make sacrifices for me."
"Doesn't feel like a sacrifice," she replied readily. "Come here. I was going to wait to give you this but..." Haley trailed off, leading him into her room by the hand.
Nathan dropped onto her bed, a slight smirk on his lips, "What else could you possibly wait to give me?"
"Shut up, perv," she tossed a small velvet box at him, sighing when he had to stretch across the bed to grab it. "Sorry."
He pried open the box to find a class ring shining back at him. "I'm not graduating Hales."
"I know that but who cares?" She immediately took a seat when he patted his lap. "You loved that school, you loved our friends, you loved your teammates and your coaches, you loved our life there. I know you would have been so proud to have graduated. It's not much of a sacrifice, you know, giving up college life for the NBA. But it's still a chapter of your life that's closing and you should have something to show for it."
"I know you don't really get it. I mean, this is your childhood dream come true but dreams do change, Nathan. Mine have. I never once dreamed of having a relationship like we do but I wouldn't change it for the world. In fact, my Prince Charming looked a lot like TJ from next door. On that note, I think I'm just going to g—."
She began to rise to her feet and only chuckled when he tightened his grip around her waist, keeping her steadily against his chest.
"I don't need, or even want, everything I used to dream about. It's really sweet you want me to have it all but...where I go to school? It's not something I care about much anymore. I know that doesn't make sense and I'm not being very clear. It's just that where I am physically doesn't hold much weight for me anymore. If you don't understand that, fine. Just accept it so we can move on."
Nathan gave a heavy sigh that she immediately rolled her eyes at. "Look, I get that you want to do this for me and I appreciate it, more than you know. It's just that...whenever we'd talk during high school, Stanford was your dream. I feel like you already put it on hold when you chose to go to Wake and I hate that I'm getting what I want and you aren't—again."
"I'm sure Stanford would be great but it's not end game. You are. What I need and want, Nathan, is for you to stop second-guessing that. I know you don't really think about these things because basketball is just that to you. Basketball. But if Oklahoma hears about this, if your teammates hear about this, it's going to affect how they treat you. No one appreciates being second best. You were their first choice and now it's like you're shopping around for another team. It's not going to be pretty if word gets out, babe." Haley patted his cheek fondly when he grimaced at the pet name. "Basically, you have to stop being Mr. Sensitive and just take the silver platter. Oh, and you have to go home. Your flight leaves in about two hours."
"Fine." He tossed her off his lap and onto the mattress, ignoring her indignant yelling. "Thank you for the ring. It's a great gift, Hales, the perfect memento of our time at Wake."
Haley just smiled indulgently before replying, "I know." Nathan laughed and gave her a deep kiss that lasted until she'd pushed him out the room and nearly down the stairs.
"There is an insane number of adult superstores along the I-40."
"Really?" Nathan drawled with a smirk. Using one hand, he pulled her onto his lap and watched the predicted blush as she realized that his agent and father were also sitting in the hotel lobby and within hearing range. "You go in any?"
Trying to shake off the blush, Haley laughed, "Nope. But Lucas did."
"Shut it, Hales," the blonde complained, dropping her and his duffel bags by the armchair. "I just wanted to see. You weren't even brave enough to go in with me. When I came back out, she was crouched in her seat with a jacket over her."
The blush refused to die and she nearly toppled out of Nathan's lap trying to kick at Lucas. "People were staring, okay? It got weird. And you lasted all of two minutes in there before running back out."
"Let's just drop it," Lucas mumbled, collapsing onto a nearby couch.
"How was the drive?" Nathan questioned. He fought hard to keep the bitter tinge out of his voice but by Haley's glare he didn't succeed.
After Haley had finally convinced him to stick with Oklahoma, Lucas had panicked, realizing that his best friend was about to move out of the state and possibly for good. The older Scott had monopolized Haley's time as best he could, citing a specific Best Friend List they needed to complete. Nathan was left to his own devices, even for a trip they'd planned together when he needed to meet with the team and staff and she wanted to look around the University and find a place for them to live. A road trip had been number 841 or something on Lucas' list. So while he got on a plane to Oklahoma City, they'd spent nearly three days driving in a brand new car Dan insisted they borrow from the dealership.
"Do you know where the world's largest guitar is?" Luke asked dryly. Nathan only shook his head in response. "Bristol, Tennessee. How about the world's largest charcoal grill? Or the world's larg—"
"Let's just drop it," Haley groused, slouching her shoulders against Nathan's laughing chest. "What have you been up to?" she changed the topic easily and even Lucas perked up to hear the latest.
"Met with the general manager this morning, got a workout in with the strength and conditioning coach, and management gave me a list of apartment complexes and stuff to look at. We can do that this afternoon or tomorrow if you want. They gave me the number of a realtor, too, if we need help," he rattled off, nodding at Dan, who gestured that he was going upstairs. "Actually, they were going to set me up with a place but when I said we'd be living together, they figured we'd want to pick our own."
"Apartments?" Haley perked up immediately, "Luke, do you want to come?"
With a quick shake of his head, he rolled awkwardly off the couch he'd collapsed on. "No thanks, Hales. I don't know where you get the energy," he joked.
"Probably because she made you drive the entire way," Nathan guessed accurately. "Meet us down here for dinner at six. Some of the team invited us out," he informed before Lucas grabbed his bag from the floor and disappeared upstairs, leaving them with the keys to the car. "He's going to have dinner with a bunch of NBA players and he's too tired to even care. What'd you do to him?"
Haley dragged him off the couch and towards the main entrance, asking a bellhop to drop off her bag in Nathan's room. "Nothing," she replied innocently, "much. You would have been able to keep up with me."
His response was a deep chuckle, "Damn straight."
"Holy shit, just pick one already," Nathan grumbled under his breath. The real estate agent shot him an understanding look, as if it was solely her commission keeping her from running far, far away from them. "Hales?" he called, losing her in the sizable condo.
The first three "apartments" they'd been to had been monstrosities with too much space for a traveling NBA player and a full-time student. All three had been bigger than the first floor of his family home, and if he hadn't seen them with his own eyes, he'd never believe something that extravagant existed in the Midwest. The agent had finally understood that she was going to lose the commission entirely if she didn't bring them to more reasonable locations, and since then Haley had found fault with five places.
"This one!" Haley yelled, using his voice as a makeshift game of Marco Polo. "It's perfect. Okay, a little big, I did just get lost," she shrugged, rounding the corner. Nathan could only roll his shoulders in exasperation. "But it's almost exactly halfway between school and the stadium. So you know perfect." The agent practically sagged in relief and quickly made arrangements for them to sign the paperwork the next day.
"Do you think we could have a minute?" Haley questioned and she promised to be outside at the car when they were ready to leave. "So three bedrooms: master, study room for me, and gym for you."
Nathan nodded agreeably, looking around with some anticipation. They were standing in a recently built but even more recently remodeled small single family home. It wasn't exactly what he had in mind for future NBA stardom, but the master takes up the entire upper floor and comes equipped with a fireplace and monstrous Jacuzzi bathtub. He was sold after that. He supposed the downstairs was also large enough for any of their other needs, as Haley pointed out. Back to the problem at hand then.
Nathan quirked an eyebrow and sighed, "You're sure about this? We can look at other places later if you're not."
"No, I'm not sure about this!" she burst out, "I grew up sharing a room with Taylor. It took Connor, Viv, and Adam leaving for college before we got separate ones. And I just spent the last two years sharing a 13 by 13 foot room with another person. I have no idea what to do with space, but it's smaller than any of the others and the location is great. So, yeah, I guess this is it."
He grabbed her by the shoulders and knelt slightly to look her in the eye. "Is this where you want to be? Will you be happy here?"
Haley gave him a brilliant smile in response. "You, me, us, this. Being at least as happy as I am right now and with you. That's where I always want to be in life, Nathan."
Nathan hugged her tight in relief, squishing her face into his chest till she squirmed away. "Awesome. Me too. Can we eat now? You've worn me out."
"But this is just the beginning," she enthused, giving him a wide smile and pressing her lips to his.
He smiled fondly down at her and allowed her to pull away and drag him out the door. The agent looked slightly relieved to see them emerge and he can only imagine what she thought they were getting up to in there.
Quickly, he glanced back at the house, wondering if he should ask about an option other than leasing. But, no, the place wouldn't be big enough for what he had planned: a boy and a girl just like her mom. Besides, this time, he was keeping her dreams in mind.